New Doctor Who spin-off starring Russell Tovey announced at Comic-Con

A new Doctor Who spin-off is coming.

The news was announced at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday (July 26) during a panel moderated by Josh Horowitz with stars Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson and showrunner Russell T Davies.

Russel Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw will lead the new spin-off series titled, The War Between the Land and the Sea.

“When a fearsome and ancient species emerges from the ocean, dramatically revealing themselves to humanity, an international crisis is triggered,” an official description reads. “With the entire population at risk, UNIT steps into action as the land and sea wage war.”

Created by Davies, the series features the return of the Sea Devils, classic Doctor Who villains first seen in 1972.

Davies said in a statement: “I’m so lucky to work with such a magnificent cast. And this is a huge, muscular, thrilling drama which will shake The Whoniverse to its foundations. When the Doctor’s not in town, the whole of humanity is in trouble.”

Filming begins next month and will be directed by Dylan Holmes-Williams, director of two Doctor Who season one episodes: “73 Yards” and “Dot and Bubble.” The series will air exclusively on Disney+ in the US and BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK.

The War Between The Land And The Sea is produced by Bad Wolf, with BBC Studios for Disney Branded Television and BBC. In addition to Davies, executive producers include Phil Collinson, Joel Collins, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter.

Gatwa and Gibson return to Doctor Who next season and will welcome Varada Sethu (Andor) as a new companion to the Doctor. Gibson also announced that The Little Mermaid star Jonah Hauer-King will join the cast of the new season as part of Ruby’s story.

Elsewhere in the panel, Nicola Coughlan introduced the first trailer for the forthcoming Doctor Who Christmas special.

She stars as “a determined woman whose life is changed forever when she meets the Doctor.”

“She’s an absolute star,” Gatwa said of the Irish actor.

In 2022, Disney bought the international distribution rights to Doctor Who, in a deal which considerably boosted the production budget for the recent 14th season.

The deal, which some analysts have valued at $100m (£80m), coincided with the return of Davies, who brought in the Sex Education’s Gatwa.

However, the latest season of Doctor Who drew in almost 1.5 million fewer viewers per episode (over seven days) than the final series starring the previous Doctor, Jodie Whittaker.

In a review of the series finale, The Independent’s Ed Power wrote: “In a recent interview with The New York Times, returning Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies said that he wanted the latest incarnation of the BBC blockbuster to reflect the positive trend among young people to ‘express their emotions in a healthy way’. This was in reference to Ncuti Gatwa’s teary, big-hearted Doctor – a Time Lord who isn’t embarrassed to shed a tear or jig with joy.

“But as Gatwa’s first season draws to a close with its eighth episode, the one emotion Whoivans young, old and in-between, are likely to share is the sting of anticlimax. After stringing us along since last year’s Christmas special with the so-called ‘mystery” of Ruby Sunday’s origins, the series delivers the mother of all letdowns: Ruby’s mum is just an ordinary person.”